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How hierarchic was the historical East Asian system?

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Abstract

Hierarchy is becoming a central topic in recent International Relations scholarship, and the historical East Asian hierarchy offers an important case study. This article provides a first-cut analysis of the degree variation in regional hierarchy. It distinguishes three levels of Chinese hierarchy in China’s relationships with Korea, Japan and the Mongols in ‘early modern’ East Asia (1368–1800). Regional relations during this period were on the whole more hierarchic than anarchic, but anarchy was also impressive in each of the relationships during certain periods. Theoretically, the analysis suggests questioning the diametrical assumption of hierarchy/anarchy as the organizing principle of international politics. For policy, it notes why a new Chinese hierarchy is unlikely to appear in the foreseeable future.

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Acknowledgements

This article was presented at the roundtable on the nature of political and spiritual relations among Asian leaders and polities from the 14th to the 18th centuries, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, 19–21 April 2010. I thank Michael van Walt for the invitation, and the roundtable participants, particularly Victoria Hui and Yuan-kang Wang, for their comments. I am also grateful to David Kang, Peter Katzenstein and Richard Ned Lebow for valuable feedback.

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  1. Department of International Relations, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Feng Zhang

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Zhang, F. How hierarchic was the historical East Asian system?. Int Polit 51, 1–22 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2013.44

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